With cruise traffic booming, Alaska’s travel industry looks to boost independent traveler numbers

It’s been a busy season for tourism in Alaska. This summer, some remote communities welcomed their largest cruise ships in history– while others turned thousands of tourists away due to wildfires.

The Alaska Travel Industry Association hasn’t released numbers yet regarding how big of an economic impact visitors had in 2023, but it’s confirmed the state broke a cruise ship passenger record.

ATIA president and CEO Jillian Simpson said most sectors of the tourism industry have recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Jillian Simpson: In particular, the cruise sector definitely has recovered from COVID, which I think has been great. We are still seeing a lot of businesses from that time still trying to earn back to the level that they were at before. But I think people have been really optimistic, especially with the last few seasons that we’ve had. 

On the independent traveler side, though, I think the businesses that cater most to those are still in recovery. And it’s unknown, really how that’ll keep going for them. So I think that there’s still opportunity for growth in those sectors. 

Ava White: Some Southeast communities, like Juneau, are considering limiting cruise ship passengers. How worried are you about these proposals?

JS: Juneau has been a really great example of a community led process when it comes to tourism. It certainly comprises the people that are showcasing their destination, the people that are visiting. And it’s a cultural exchange, as well as being really good for the economy. 

Juneau has the tourism manager, Alexandra Pierce, and she has worked really closely with community stakeholders to actually try to have a community led effort that really addresses what they want tourism to look like in Juneau, and they’ve actually done some really amazing agreements with the cruise lines. 

It’s unfortunate that there’s also other initiatives that are out there to further limit this important component of our economy. I think having those informed conversations with each other and coming together, and everybody agreeing with what the path forward is, is really the way to do that.

AW: Nome recently welcomed their largest cruise ship in its history recently, and Kodiak has also seen an increase in cruise travel this summer. What strategies are being implemented to increase tourism in the state beyond cruise travelers?

JS: The independent traveler is an extremely important part of our travel makeup. Right now in the summertime, 65% of our visitors are on a cruise ship and 35% of them are traveling independently– and that’s either driving up the highway or taking the ferry. The vast majority of them are obviously flying in and out of the state. 

Then in the wintertime, they’re all independent travelers, because cruising doesn’t really happen in the wintertime. They’re [independent travelers] a very important segment and definitely one that the Alaska Travel Industry Association focuses on in order to help them plan and inspire them to choose Alaska as a visitor destination. 

I think that there are a lot of communities now that are mindfully looking at ways to grow tourism, either by building new ports or developing new tour products.

AW: I could see how other Southeast communities might view the proposed cap as an opportunity to increase tourism in their respective communities. Have you seen any communities trying to increase cruise traffic?

JS: There’s been some real interesting developments happening with Huna Totem Corporation. They started at Icy Strait Point, actually, this is their 20th anniversary. They have been really mindful about what the development is going to be and how many ships, and how many passengers, and how it was going to interact with the village of Hoonah.

It’s been such a success story, and it has grown incrementally year over year, and is an amazing positive experience. They have partnered with Doyon as well Klawock and have now developed a new tender port. 

Klawock saw its first ships earlier this season for the first time. And again, kind of the same model where it’s going to be a slow development, but I think it provides a huge opportunity for the community to lead the way of what they want their tourism product to be and to have local tour providers providing that and then utilizing the distribution channel of the cruise lines who are bringing those passengers up.